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| market 1 (Photo credit: tim caynes) |
Investing isn’t just about money—it’s about building freedom over time. This blog breaks down the world of investing into simple, practical insights you can actually use, whether you’re just starting out or looking to grow your portfolio. From stocks and dividends to market trends and mindset, you’ll find clear, no-nonsense content designed to help you make smarter financial decisions and stay ahead in your investing journey.
September 02, 2009
5 Proven Tips to Reach a Niche Business Audience
Time to Make Money on eBay Again
GREAT news from eBay!
It looks like they’re finally clearing the way for small-to-medium-sized sellers to make money again. FYI, here’s a quick rundown of the changes they’ve just announced.
Starting in September you’ll get better exposure in eBay’s search results AND get a 20% reduction in fees if:
You’ll also be rewarded if your listings have a high conversion rate — in other words your listings may not get a lot of views, but they consistently sell your items. Good news for sellers who take time to write a good title and item description; bad news for the giant Diamond sellers that don’t bother because they’ve got so much inventory!
Our eBay Mentoring Team are really excited about these changes. They say the just-introduced Top-Rated Seller designation is “realistic and achievable” for people who follow our system and use our strategies.
Coincidentally, we’ve just released the brand-new, online version of our Insider Secrets to Selling on eBay course. It’ll cover all these changes (the big advantage of being online instead of in a book) and any new ones eBay comes up with.
So if you’ve been frustrated with eBay lately, NOW IT’S A WHOLE NEW BALLGAME!
After a couple of years of making it harder and harder to make money, it looks like eBay is rewarding the sellers who made it such a powerhouse in the first place.
What do you think? Is this what you’ve been waiting to see on eBay?
Source: InternetMarketing
It looks like they’re finally clearing the way for small-to-medium-sized sellers to make money again. FYI, here’s a quick rundown of the changes they’ve just announced.
Starting in September you’ll get better exposure in eBay’s search results AND get a 20% reduction in fees if:
- you’re selling $3000.00 a year with 100+ sales
- you don’t get 1 and 2 ratings on the Detailed Seller Ratings
- you maintain a 4.6 or higher DSR average
You’ll also be rewarded if your listings have a high conversion rate — in other words your listings may not get a lot of views, but they consistently sell your items. Good news for sellers who take time to write a good title and item description; bad news for the giant Diamond sellers that don’t bother because they’ve got so much inventory!
Our eBay Mentoring Team are really excited about these changes. They say the just-introduced Top-Rated Seller designation is “realistic and achievable” for people who follow our system and use our strategies.
Coincidentally, we’ve just released the brand-new, online version of our Insider Secrets to Selling on eBay course. It’ll cover all these changes (the big advantage of being online instead of in a book) and any new ones eBay comes up with.
So if you’ve been frustrated with eBay lately, NOW IT’S A WHOLE NEW BALLGAME!
After a couple of years of making it harder and harder to make money, it looks like eBay is rewarding the sellers who made it such a powerhouse in the first place.
What do you think? Is this what you’ve been waiting to see on eBay?
Source: InternetMarketing
August 28, 2009
Email Marketing for Dummies - 5 Tips for Getting Started
by Lyndi Lawson
In some ways, Email Marketing can be considered the founding father of eMarketing (that’s why I have now written two sets of tips on getting it right). In the good old days, before spam was illegal, before people started caring about piffling things like privacy and permission based marketing, it was easy. There were three steps: buy a database, throw together a directly self promotional message and email it to 100 000 people and then wait for a response.
Oh, how things have changed. These days, successful eMarketers do things differently, and in an ideal world, evil spammers like the notorious Reginald Tsktsk are thrown into an eternal hell of internetlessness.
Email workers
You must carefully consider any communication you send to someone's inbox.
Fortunately, there’s more to email marketing than spam and if you’re just starting out, here are some guidelines to keep in mind.
1. Plan Strategically
Like most things in life, you need to know what you’re trying to achieve before you actually achieve it. The more impulsive among us might be tempted to jump right in and send that first mail, but without clearly defined goals, you’re unlikely to benefit from it in any way at all. In fact, it may actually do more damage to your future endeavours than good.
Start by deciding on some broad goals. Are you trying to ensure that your customers are in regular contact with your brand? Or are you trying to promote a specific campaign? Generally, knowing what you hope to achieve with your mails is a good starting point. Are you hoping to encourage your readers to buy something, download something or simply get in touch with you for further information? Making these decisions will narrow down the scope of your campaign and should guide the process going forward.
2. Test, Test, Test
Planning your campaign around your goals isn’t really enough. You need to test your emails before you send them. The reasons for this are twofold. In part, testing is important because you need to ensure that your mails will bypass the spam filters. Filters like this are in place to ensure that I don’t have to read about buying generic Viagra on a Monday morning. They can however be tricky to navigate for any email sent to a large database. The other crucial reason to test your emails is compatibility. Consider the large number of browsers and email clients that are used – theoretically it’s possible that while your mail may look fantabulous when sent to gmail, it might resemble something that my dog threw up when viewed in Outlook. You need to check this in advance to prevent looking like a tool.
3. Get Your Emails White Listed and Improve Your Reputation Score
According to eMarketing: the essential guide to online marketing (the source of all reliable eMarketing information :) ) an email white list is “the list of contacts that a user deems are acceptable to receive email from and should not be sent to the trash folder.” There are a number of ways to do this, one of which is to give specific instructions in your newsletter that explains to your users how to white list your emails. This benefits the user, because they won’t miss important mails. It also benefits you, for obvious reasons.
Reputation score determines whether or not your email is regarded as spam. Reputation score is generally determined by the ISPs, so in order to arrive in a user’s inbox, your message needs to meet their standards. Tips for doing this include allowing for users to unsubscribe, maintaining your database and removing addresses that result in hard bounces. Also make use of sender authentication standards like sender ID.
4. Integrate Your Campaign With Other eMarketing Channels
I know it's something that I (and indeed all of us, quirky QuirkStars) say a lot but; a holistic approach to eMarketing is crucial to your success. Using a whole lot of tactics, without a unifying strategy and integrated goals is fruitless. Whenever you’re starting something new, decide where it fits into your overall strategy and ensure that your marketing and overall business goals are aligned. This will ultimately ensure your success.
5. Learn From Your Experiences
I know that I have rabbitted on about planning and goal setting bla bla bla - and while this is super duper important – often the only way to learn is by doing. While I am in no way advocating a rash approach to your campaign, it is beneficial to sit back and reflect after each send, particularly the early ones. To quote my favourite textbook once again, “tracking, analysing and optimising is key to growth.” After your send, look at the stats and analyse the results. This information will ensure that you reach your audience effectively, achieve the goals you set for yourself and don’t get yourself labelled an evil spammer like our good friend Reginald Tsktsk.
Source: gottAquirk
In some ways, Email Marketing can be considered the founding father of eMarketing (that’s why I have now written two sets of tips on getting it right). In the good old days, before spam was illegal, before people started caring about piffling things like privacy and permission based marketing, it was easy. There were three steps: buy a database, throw together a directly self promotional message and email it to 100 000 people and then wait for a response.
Oh, how things have changed. These days, successful eMarketers do things differently, and in an ideal world, evil spammers like the notorious Reginald Tsktsk are thrown into an eternal hell of internetlessness.
Email workers
You must carefully consider any communication you send to someone's inbox.
Fortunately, there’s more to email marketing than spam and if you’re just starting out, here are some guidelines to keep in mind.
1. Plan Strategically
Like most things in life, you need to know what you’re trying to achieve before you actually achieve it. The more impulsive among us might be tempted to jump right in and send that first mail, but without clearly defined goals, you’re unlikely to benefit from it in any way at all. In fact, it may actually do more damage to your future endeavours than good.
Start by deciding on some broad goals. Are you trying to ensure that your customers are in regular contact with your brand? Or are you trying to promote a specific campaign? Generally, knowing what you hope to achieve with your mails is a good starting point. Are you hoping to encourage your readers to buy something, download something or simply get in touch with you for further information? Making these decisions will narrow down the scope of your campaign and should guide the process going forward.
2. Test, Test, Test
Planning your campaign around your goals isn’t really enough. You need to test your emails before you send them. The reasons for this are twofold. In part, testing is important because you need to ensure that your mails will bypass the spam filters. Filters like this are in place to ensure that I don’t have to read about buying generic Viagra on a Monday morning. They can however be tricky to navigate for any email sent to a large database. The other crucial reason to test your emails is compatibility. Consider the large number of browsers and email clients that are used – theoretically it’s possible that while your mail may look fantabulous when sent to gmail, it might resemble something that my dog threw up when viewed in Outlook. You need to check this in advance to prevent looking like a tool.
3. Get Your Emails White Listed and Improve Your Reputation Score
According to eMarketing: the essential guide to online marketing (the source of all reliable eMarketing information :) ) an email white list is “the list of contacts that a user deems are acceptable to receive email from and should not be sent to the trash folder.” There are a number of ways to do this, one of which is to give specific instructions in your newsletter that explains to your users how to white list your emails. This benefits the user, because they won’t miss important mails. It also benefits you, for obvious reasons.
Reputation score determines whether or not your email is regarded as spam. Reputation score is generally determined by the ISPs, so in order to arrive in a user’s inbox, your message needs to meet their standards. Tips for doing this include allowing for users to unsubscribe, maintaining your database and removing addresses that result in hard bounces. Also make use of sender authentication standards like sender ID.
4. Integrate Your Campaign With Other eMarketing Channels
I know it's something that I (and indeed all of us, quirky QuirkStars) say a lot but; a holistic approach to eMarketing is crucial to your success. Using a whole lot of tactics, without a unifying strategy and integrated goals is fruitless. Whenever you’re starting something new, decide where it fits into your overall strategy and ensure that your marketing and overall business goals are aligned. This will ultimately ensure your success.
5. Learn From Your Experiences
I know that I have rabbitted on about planning and goal setting bla bla bla - and while this is super duper important – often the only way to learn is by doing. While I am in no way advocating a rash approach to your campaign, it is beneficial to sit back and reflect after each send, particularly the early ones. To quote my favourite textbook once again, “tracking, analysing and optimising is key to growth.” After your send, look at the stats and analyse the results. This information will ensure that you reach your audience effectively, achieve the goals you set for yourself and don’t get yourself labelled an evil spammer like our good friend Reginald Tsktsk.
Source: gottAquirk
July 22, 2009
10 Great Ways To Use Twitter To Your Business's Advantage
by Amy Armitage
Twitter is the latest web-centric communications service to explode onto the scene, and businesses have moved in rapidly. However, a little discretion goes a long way, as the users of "social" sites and services have demonstrated that they will stomach only so much commercialization of what they consider their personal space. As MySpace evolved from an upstart new kid on the block where everyone let everything "hang out" to a part of the Rupert Murdoch media empire, people who'd had enough began looking for other places. This influenced the rise of Facebook. Now that Facebook has begun acting like a "regular old corporation," too, folks are on the search again.
Your company can most definitely benefit from using Twitter. The primary use for it in business is to listen, because, as every top-performing salesman knows, listening is more important than talking most of the time. You want to hear from every customer, vendor, client, industry leader, journalist, activist, colleague and competitor who has anything to say about your product, service or business. Twitter has much in common with old-style networking, like early morning meetings at diners and water-cooler chats, except it's been "virtualized" for 21st century knowledge sharing. With that brief introduction, let's look at 10 great ways to use Twitter to your business's advantage.
1. Listen more, talk less: If you just think of Twitter as another way to "post" your messages and advertisements, you're missing the whole point and your following will probably be nonexistent. Spend more time listening to what others are "tweeting" (posting) about you and you will gather valuable information. When you do post a message, make it something people want to know, not something you want them to know.
2. Find your niche: Twitter's uses are limited only by your imagination, or someone else's if you're fresh out of ideas. Don't think of what you can get, but what you can offer and what you can learn. You may want to share knowledge, you may want to obtain it, or you may just want to assure customers, colleagues and others that you are available to them. You will benefit to the extent that you listen and stay engaged, which means referring back to #1 a lot.
3. Develop a personality (or a few): A number of business bloggers have commented on how well Twitter works to humanize an otherwise impersonal entity like a corporation. A fresh and interesting personality attracts followers, and some successful firms even allow numerous voices to reach out from within the company's offices and cubicles.
4. Eavesdrop: There are several good tools for monitoring what is being said, starting with Twitter's own search field. Search for your term(s) and when the results are displayed, you will also get a list of the current most-popular searches (to the right) so you always know what's hot at the moment. The site monitter.com, as the name implies, was developed specifically for use with Twitter, to allow simultaneous multiple searches.
5. Build your audience: The first thing to do is post a few tweets to get a handle on how it all works, of course, and dedicate some study time to see what your competitors and companies in the same industry are doing. Make use of the "Find People" function on the top of the Twitter page to find people in your own company, your current clients and colleagues, old classmates and friends, etc. Use the "@" reply to connect directly with people, to make sure they see your tweet, and discuss matters of interest to them. When they respond with the @ reply, other folks following them may notice you and choose to follow you, too.
6. Follow the followers: You should find out who else your followers are following, as that can give you fresh insight into the types of people to seek. Use the various search methods (see #4 above) to find subjects that relate to your industry, and pay attention to who's talking about these matters. Don't be a broadcaster, be a conversationalist, and if you do Twitter right, you will build a following daily.
7. Be human: Too many people, from firms both large and small, represent their firms poorly by appearing to be robots on a fixed schedule. They crank out PR verbiage and automated data and don't offer anything for followers to grab hold of. You have to "throw them a line" or you will sail right by everyone.
8. Be polite and respectful: This means that the rules for eating Thanksgiving dinner at the neighbor's house are in effect-no politics, no religion, unless you're a politician or a clergyman, of course. These subjects have no place in a business conversation, so leave them out.
9: Play nice: Don't get emotionally involved or rant about a person, place or product. One marketing blogger called Twitter "a ship we are all traveling on," so it's important to act appropriately-or be forced to "walk the plank."
10: Stay positive: Don't be pessimistic, and don't whine or complain about what's wrong with this or that industry or the world in general. People will follow people they like, who offer something of value, who are upbeat and who stay on an even keel. Of course, some situations require a serious, even solemn approach, but those are the exceptions and should be handled delicately. Anyone can bellyache, gripe, moan and groan. A leader, on the other hand, offers solutions.
Bottom line? Twitter is a tool, and a good one, for keeping conversations going with stakeholders, potential customers, colleagues and even competitors. It takes real-time management because it's a real-time tool, but when it's done right Twitter can be an important addition to your sales, marketing and business communications arsenal.
Source: HostReview
Twitter is the latest web-centric communications service to explode onto the scene, and businesses have moved in rapidly. However, a little discretion goes a long way, as the users of "social" sites and services have demonstrated that they will stomach only so much commercialization of what they consider their personal space. As MySpace evolved from an upstart new kid on the block where everyone let everything "hang out" to a part of the Rupert Murdoch media empire, people who'd had enough began looking for other places. This influenced the rise of Facebook. Now that Facebook has begun acting like a "regular old corporation," too, folks are on the search again.
Your company can most definitely benefit from using Twitter. The primary use for it in business is to listen, because, as every top-performing salesman knows, listening is more important than talking most of the time. You want to hear from every customer, vendor, client, industry leader, journalist, activist, colleague and competitor who has anything to say about your product, service or business. Twitter has much in common with old-style networking, like early morning meetings at diners and water-cooler chats, except it's been "virtualized" for 21st century knowledge sharing. With that brief introduction, let's look at 10 great ways to use Twitter to your business's advantage.
1. Listen more, talk less: If you just think of Twitter as another way to "post" your messages and advertisements, you're missing the whole point and your following will probably be nonexistent. Spend more time listening to what others are "tweeting" (posting) about you and you will gather valuable information. When you do post a message, make it something people want to know, not something you want them to know.
2. Find your niche: Twitter's uses are limited only by your imagination, or someone else's if you're fresh out of ideas. Don't think of what you can get, but what you can offer and what you can learn. You may want to share knowledge, you may want to obtain it, or you may just want to assure customers, colleagues and others that you are available to them. You will benefit to the extent that you listen and stay engaged, which means referring back to #1 a lot.
3. Develop a personality (or a few): A number of business bloggers have commented on how well Twitter works to humanize an otherwise impersonal entity like a corporation. A fresh and interesting personality attracts followers, and some successful firms even allow numerous voices to reach out from within the company's offices and cubicles.
4. Eavesdrop: There are several good tools for monitoring what is being said, starting with Twitter's own search field. Search for your term(s) and when the results are displayed, you will also get a list of the current most-popular searches (to the right) so you always know what's hot at the moment. The site monitter.com, as the name implies, was developed specifically for use with Twitter, to allow simultaneous multiple searches.
5. Build your audience: The first thing to do is post a few tweets to get a handle on how it all works, of course, and dedicate some study time to see what your competitors and companies in the same industry are doing. Make use of the "Find People" function on the top of the Twitter page to find people in your own company, your current clients and colleagues, old classmates and friends, etc. Use the "@" reply to connect directly with people, to make sure they see your tweet, and discuss matters of interest to them. When they respond with the @ reply, other folks following them may notice you and choose to follow you, too.
6. Follow the followers: You should find out who else your followers are following, as that can give you fresh insight into the types of people to seek. Use the various search methods (see #4 above) to find subjects that relate to your industry, and pay attention to who's talking about these matters. Don't be a broadcaster, be a conversationalist, and if you do Twitter right, you will build a following daily.
7. Be human: Too many people, from firms both large and small, represent their firms poorly by appearing to be robots on a fixed schedule. They crank out PR verbiage and automated data and don't offer anything for followers to grab hold of. You have to "throw them a line" or you will sail right by everyone.
8. Be polite and respectful: This means that the rules for eating Thanksgiving dinner at the neighbor's house are in effect-no politics, no religion, unless you're a politician or a clergyman, of course. These subjects have no place in a business conversation, so leave them out.
9: Play nice: Don't get emotionally involved or rant about a person, place or product. One marketing blogger called Twitter "a ship we are all traveling on," so it's important to act appropriately-or be forced to "walk the plank."
10: Stay positive: Don't be pessimistic, and don't whine or complain about what's wrong with this or that industry or the world in general. People will follow people they like, who offer something of value, who are upbeat and who stay on an even keel. Of course, some situations require a serious, even solemn approach, but those are the exceptions and should be handled delicately. Anyone can bellyache, gripe, moan and groan. A leader, on the other hand, offers solutions.
Bottom line? Twitter is a tool, and a good one, for keeping conversations going with stakeholders, potential customers, colleagues and even competitors. It takes real-time management because it's a real-time tool, but when it's done right Twitter can be an important addition to your sales, marketing and business communications arsenal.
Source: HostReview
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